A Newcastle cinema is giving up its precious secrets, the latest
being a mural by one of the region's most notable architects.

It was in the 1970s that Peter Yates depicted a potted history of
moving pictures on a wall at the Tyneside Cinema, Pilgrim Street.

The mural, starting with a Victorian zoetrope machine and ending
with an Andy Warhol-inspired portrait of Marilyn Monroe, decorated the
new Club Cinema.

When the upper cinema became the Electra, the mural was covered (
like many features which made the 1930s cinema one of the most beautiful
in the country.

Now, as part of a pounds 6.5m revamp to incorporate a new screen
and enhanced facilities, the surviving treasures, including murals,
mosaics, coloured plasterwork and stained glass, are returning to the
light.

Builders working for development company Wates found Peter
Yates's mural this week.

Cyril Winskell, of Jesmond, Newcastle, conservation architect on
the project, was a friend of Mr Yates, who died 20 years ago, and has a
photo of him working on the mural.

He said: "Peter and Gordon Ryder established Ryder and Yates
in Newcastle, (now known as Ryder HKS), the best modern practitioners of
architecture in the North-East since the war."

They made waves by designing innovative buildings for the Gas Board
in Killingworth and Peter Yates also designed MEA House and the
Salvation Army hostel on City Road.

Mr Winskell said Peter was a hero of the Blitz ( one of those who
saved St Paul's Cathedral by kicking incendiary bombs off the roof
( and later, having been called up, he took part in the liberation of
Paris.

He saw a plaque on a house identifying it as the home of famous
painter Georges Braque.

"He knocked and Braque himself answered. Peter said, 'Do
you do drawing lessons?' So he had lessons from Georges Braque in
1945."

Mr Winskell said the mural would have to be removed but could be
reinstalled as the backdrop to a cinema bar after being restored.

The Tyneside's screenings have temporarily moved to Gateshead
Old Town Hall, and it is due to reopen in 2008.

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